Projects of the Gallican Church and the ‘Everyday Piety’ Reform on the Eve of the Wars of Religion

During the so-called ‘Gallican crisis’ between 1551 and 1552, Pope Julius III accused the French king of preparing an ecclesiastical schism, while the possibility of establishing a French patriarchate was discussed in the royal council. Before long, however, the conflict gave way to a close alliance between the Pope and King Henry II. Was the ‘Gallican crisis’ just a tool of political pressure on Julius III? To what extent were the plans of the king and his entourage to reform the Gallican Church serious? The lack of sources can be filled, at least in part, by turning to the work by Raoul Spifame, a lawyer of the Paris Parliament, titled Dicaearchiae Henrici Regis Christianissimi Progymnasmata (1556). In its essence, it is a collection of rhetorical exercises in the field of jurisprudence written in the form of royal decrees designed to reform everything in the kingdom. Surprisingly, some of these fictional measures later would be actually implemented. The reason for the author’s ‘clairvoyance’ lies in his contacts with the secretaries of state who were then preparing large-scale reforms, which would eventually be cancelled due to the unexpected death of the king and the outbreak of the Wars of Religion. A considerable part of the decrees is devoted to plans of the reform of the Gallican Church: from the elevation of the Bishopric of Paris to the rank of an archdiocese to tightening control over the morals of prelates. This article pays special attention to how the Dicaearchiae regulated the elements of ‘everyday piety’ — the rituals of blessing of the bridal chamber, purification after childbirth, and belief in the existence of limb. A limitation of ‘luxury’ was also to be introduced: refusal of precious ecclesiastical ornaments, redundant bells, and a reduction in the number of holidays associated with the veneration of saints. Without abandoning the cult of saints, Spifame undertakes a reform of the ecclesiastical calendar and creates a sort of national martyrology of warriors who died for their homeland and ‘are venerated as saints without a canonisation’.

The Concept of Bridal Chamber in the Valentinian Inscriptions

This article investigates the Valentinian ritual, called “bridal chamber”, in the only surviving Valentinian funeral epitaphs, Flavia Sophe and NCE 156. These inscriptions stand out from the context of other Valentinian sources because they are extant in the Ancient Greek, not the Coptic language. Bridal chamber is a polysemous concept in the Nag Hammadi texts, and therefore begs the question, what does it mean in the Valentinian funeral epitaphs? Furthermore, this article is an attempt to elucidate the connections between the two inscriptions by interpreting the concept of bridal chamber.

“Illius sponsi thalamus fuit uterus virginis”

This article examines the image of Mary’s womb as the bridal chamber in which the Word and the flesh, the divine and the human natures of Christ, are united. The image presents the reader with a paradox – the Word and the flesh engage in a divine unification and comingling in the womb of the virgin. The study traces the development of the image in the earlier works of Augustine, and contextualises it within Augustine’s later thought, in which the body and sexuality are considered in a more positive light. The study aims to demonstrate that Augustine’s structuring of incarnational theology served as a framework for his views on sexuality – prelapsarian, postlapsarian, and eschatological sexuality – and the discourse of the incarnation, especially in his later thought, should be seen primarily as a discourse of sexuality.

Marian Typological and Symbolic Imagery in Patristic Christianity

For well over half of the more than two thousand years of Christian history, Mary was viewed as much through the lens of Old Testament exegesis as through those brief passages in the New Testament that mention her, which is to say that the dominant mode of speaking about and understanding her was typological or figural. Epithets such as ‘the new Eve’ (Gen. 1–3), ‘Jacob’s ladder’ (Gen. 28:10–16), ‘burning bush’ (Ex. 3:1–8), ‘fleece of Gideon’ (Judg. 6:37–40), ‘ark’ (2 Kgs 6.14–23), ‘bridal chamber’ (Ps. 18:6), ‘tower of ivory’ (Song of Songs 7:4), ‘rod of Jesse’ (Isa. 11:1), and many more were once deeply significant to all Christians, from the most erudite of theologians to the simplest of faithful. This chapter examines the origins, nature, and significance of Marian typology and symbolism in the Patristic period with the aim of providing the contemporary reader with the necessary exegetical and hermeneutic keys for a fuller understanding of the original significance of this elaborate imagery.

"An Eyesore among Eyesores" : The Significance of Physical Setting in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"

It is the purpose of this paper to study the significance of the physical setting of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily". The two main geographical settings are Jefferson Town and the Grierson's house . The researcher will show how Faulkner's treatment of the details of the house (the microcosmic geographical settings) which include the upstairs bridal chamber, the crayon portrait, the front door, and window frame leads to a better understanding of Miss Emily's motivations and actions, and gives us insight to her lonely isolated life. At a certain point, Emily's decaying smelly house is refuge from the modernised outside world to which she does not belong. Furthermore, the house is the source of Miss Emily's power. Inside the walls of the house, she is a strong woman, a killer; yet a woman falling in love. Nevertheless, Faulkner presents another horrifying image of Emily's house. It harbours death and decay. In this sense, the house is closer to dark setting we read about in Gothic Romance. On the other hand, the town is the macrocosmic setting. It is a fallen legacy as it becomes a symbol for the fall of the old South which Emily's house still harbours.

The Discovery and Interpretation of the Flavia Sophe Inscription: New Results

New archival material relating to the discovery of the Flavia Sophe inscription is presented and arguments made that the inscription was discovered in situ. Careful attention to the epigraphical, palaeographical, and metrical aspects of the poem, as well as its use of nuptial imagery lead to new proposals for reconstructions. Arguments for a date in the second century are re-examined and strengthened. The language of the inscription is placed within the context of other Greek funeral epigrams to show that the writer of the epigram was well aware of the conventions Hellenistic funeral poetry and that the poem artfully subverts many of these conventions. And finally, I claim that for this group of Christians, the “bridal chamber ritual” should be understood as a mortuary rite.

The Place of the Gospel of Philip in the Context of Early Christian Claims about Jesus' Marital Status

It has long been recognized that one of the main topics of the Gospel of Philip is ritual, including ‘the bridal chamber’, and numerous studies have discussed what practices and attitudes toward sexuality and marriage are implied by this imagery. This article will build on these studies to argue that the Gospel of Philip portrays the incarnate Jesus as actually married (to Mary Magdalene) and it represents that marriage as a symbolic paradigm for the reunification of believers with their angelic (spiritual) doubles in Christian initiation ritual, a ritual which effectively transforms initiates into members of the body of Christ and also enables ‘undefiled marriage’ for Christian partners by freeing them from demonic influences. The article aims to show that this distinctive position on Jesus' marital status was catalyzed by reading Ephesians 5 in conjunction with Valentinian incarnational theology.